Columbus Day Facts 2017: 11 Things You Didn’t Know About Controversial Explorer

Columbus Day falls on Monday this year, an occasion to commemorate Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. The holiday has become controversial as many activists and groups have recently labeled him the symbol of genocide against native indigenous people.

President Donald Trump issued the annual U.S. proclamation for Columbus Day 2017. “The permanent arrival of Europeans ... was a transformative event that undeniably and fundamentally changed the course of human history and set the stage for the development of our great nation,’’ he stated.

Here are 11 facts to know about Columbus Day, and the controversial explorer in whose honor it is celebrated as a holiday:

1. Columbus was likely not the first European to travel across the Atlantic to the U.S. mainland. That distinction is generally given to the Norse Viking Leif Eriksson, who is believed to have landed in present-day Newfoundland almost five centuries before Columbus set sail. Some historians even claim that Ireland’s Saint Brendan or other Celtic people crossed the Atlantic before Eriksson.

2. When the ambitious explorer discovered Newfoundland, he left behind 40 men to begin the process of colonizing the land that he had discovered.

3. Columbus made three more voyages to the Americas after his famous one in 1492. His voyages took him to the Caribbean islands, South America and Central America.

4. Contrary to popular belief, Columbus did not voyage across the globe to prove that the earth was round. This is because Greek mathematician Pythagoras had already done so in the sixth century B.C. Two centuries later, Aristotle backed up the mathematician’s discoveries. Hence there was no need for Columbus to prove the shape of the world.

5. Part of Columbus’ colonization regime was to make slaves out of natives who resided in the New World. Genocide expert David Stannard stated that beginning 1492, Columbus along with Europeans murdered between 70 million to 100 million indigenous people, Daily Kos reported. In his book “American Holocaust,” Stannard calls that period of 80 years “the largest ongoing holocaust in the history of humanity.”

6. After he returned to Europe, following his expeditions, he was bestowed with the title "Almirante mayor del Mar," which translates to admiral of the ocean.

7. Columbus died in 1506 and was buried in Valladolid, Spain, but later his remains were moved to Seville. However, the bodies of Columbus and his son Diego were shipped across the Atlantic to Hispaniola and placed in a grave inside Santo Domingo cathedral.

8. Columbus Day has been observed as a national holiday since the 1930s. Half of states in the U.S. give their employees a paid leave from work on the day.

9. Businesses and services such as government offices, post offices and non-private banks will remain closed on Columbus Day. On the other hand, public transport in major cities, national park and stock market are expected to stay open today.

10. Because of the cruelty and inhumane treatment native Americans had to endure at the hands of Columbus’ men, U.S. cities like Phoenix, Seattle, Denver, Albuquerque, Portland Los Angeles City have decided to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day instead, The Root reported.

11. Former President Barack Obama acknowledged that Native Americans suffered "unseen disease, devastation and violence" at the hands of Columbus, in his presidential proclamation on Columbus Day 2015.